Overall I'd give this 3\10 - not good. Our experience was negative mainly due to our room. Our "large ocean view stateroom" (842) was awful - turned out to be at the back of the ship, on the lowest floor, and sounded and felt like it was right on top of the engines. Woken at 3:30 am on our first night by this incredibly loud noise and vibration so bad the whole room was shaking, like an earthquake - and it went on for an hour. Impossible to sleep. We went to the front desk at 4 am to complain and ask for another room. "The ship was full, sorry". No money back, nada. I went back another time and they offered us a free meal at a specialty restaurant. Big deal. Turns out that whole back area is on top of the ship "thrusters" which are used every time when docking or leaving a port. We were woken many times in the early hours when the ship docked at a new port, or found that afternoon naps were impossible when the ship was leaving. Absolutely awful. We had other members in our group in 3 other rooms in the same area (832, 834 and 830) who had the same experience. No chance of sleep when the Thrusters were on. Kind of loud even when they weren't on. Terrible. Some people in our group had done the exact same cruise 2 years before, but in rooms at the front of the ship, and heard nothing. They could not believe the difference. These are not the cheapest rooms, and everyone in our group has done multiple HAL cruises - so we were all shocked that we got what seemed like the crappiest rooms in the whole ship. As well, the "large window" was so dirty we could not see anything clearly. Big disappointment. If we had had a quiet room, I'd rate the whole thing as 7/10, but with the crappy sleeps it was 3/10 for me.

Otherwise - the cruise was so-so. The food and entertainment were ok - the only music I loved was the Motown night - great singer and band. Dining room was sometimes very good food, sometimes not good at all, e.g., a salad of spring mix with bottled dressing.

Everything was clean, which was great. Read more